Middle
by roorasan
Summary: The teenager to adult transition is always an awkward one. (One-shot excerpt from a novel)


Mokuba's birthday party was scheduled to take place at the Kaiba Mansion this year, which was why Kaiba himself made sure to work late at his office on that particular day. It would be his first time to miss a birthday party of his brother's, but the elder Kaiba felt that his reasoning for doing so was more than justified.

While Mokuba's eighteenth birthday was undoubtedly an important event on his calendar, Kaiba didn't particularly feel like having to put up with the attention—or, even worse, the advances—from what felt to him like hundreds of Mokuba's female friends throughout the evening. He had noticed that the number of such occurrences seemed to have increased exponentially over the last couple of years, as the girls with whom Mokuba attended Domino High School reached maturity. Luckily, the younger boy fully understood his brother's anti-social tendencies and promised not to burn down the mansion during his absence accordingly.

However, that didn't stop Kaiba from heightening the security at his home, albeit without the younger boy's knowledge. He wasn't about to be held liable for some absurd teenage stunts, which he imagined that the recent high school graduates were fully capable of pulling in the dearth of parental supervision. And, knowing his brother, Kaiba expected that Mokuba himself would be the instigator, should anything actually happen.

The guards sent Kaiba a message before finishing their shifts at the estate at just past one in the morning, reporting that there had been no major incidents all evening. Some broken glasses here and there, but that was to be expected from a party of nearly a hundred teenagers. As long as no one was dead or hospitalized, Kaiba was satisfied.

All of his rooms and his home office had been locked, so no one could have entered and tampered with or stolen anything in his absence. In addition, Kaiba made sure that all alcohol had been hidden away, though he was sure that there had been at least one guest who had brought his or her own to the party. Not his problem.

Kaiba released a sigh of relief and packed up his briefcase to go home, glad that there was virtually no traffic on the streets at this hour. Upon entering the house, fifteen minutes later, he noticed that it was still quite messy (the head maid would have a fit when she arrived first thing in the morning), but he was too exhausted to care.

A light had been left on in the kitchen, so Kaiba made his way over to turn it off before heading to his bedroom upstairs. However, he started in the doorway when he noticed someone sitting inside, back to him.

A blonde girl—at least, Kaiba called her a 'girl' due to the youthfulness of her facial features—was sitting at the counter with a glass of water in her hand, and when she turned around at the sound of his footsteps, he noticed that she was half-naked. The girl was currently wearing a white men's dress shirt, mostly unbuttoned, and seemingly nothing else.

"Hey," she called to him casually when they made eye contact, "where've _you_ been all night?"

Kaiba's jaw dropped, momentarily flabbergasted by the girl's boldness.

"Excuse me?" he replied sharply. "Who are you? What are you doing here? And where's Mokuba?"

The girl tilted her head back and laughed, setting her glass down on the counter in front of her. She stood up to face him, apparently feeling no qualms about the fact that she had almost nothing on. Kaiba scowled, but he couldn't help but notice that she was, though a bit short in stature, very full-figured—an adult woman from the neck down—and also, that there was a very high possibility that she wasn't wearing any underwear beneath (what he assumed to be) his brother's creased dress shirt.

"I guess you would have a little trouble recognizing me now," she began, reaching up to push back some of her loose, messy hair from her face. "It's been a while, Kaiba."

Kaiba angled his body away from her slightly as he averted his gaze, extremely uncomfortable with the situation. Simply the familiarity with which she had said his name struck a wrong chord in him.

"Am I supposed to know who you are?" he asked irritably as he crossed his arms. The playful expression on the girl's face faded slightly.

"Geez, I thought you were just exaggerating," she remarked to herself, taking a step forward. Kaiba took a step back from her, almost as if by instinct, and she grinned. "I'm Rebecca Hawkins, of course."

"Dear god," Kaiba said under his breath, rubbing his face with one hand. That annoying little girl whom he had last seen at the KC Grand Championship, five years ago…

He suddenly felt dirty. Kaiba silently prayed that no one knew or could see him here now, with this nearly-naked, potentially underage girl standing in front of him in his kitchen, at almost two AM.

 _'_ _I thought those guards said that everyone had left already?'_ he thought furiously, failing to notice Rebecca continuing to approach until she had stopped just in front of him.

"Kaiba—"

"Where's my brother?" he snapped, refusing to look at Rebecca. He needed to get away from her, and he suddenly felt the powerful urge to take a very hot shower and scrub himself all over until he was raw. She rolled her eyes and pointed up.

"Probably still in his room," Rebecca replied matter-of-factly. She adjusted her shirt with a sly smile. "But, you know, now that _you're_ here—"

Unwilling to listen to anything that Rebecca had to say to him, Kaiba immediately turned on his heel and climbed up the mountain of stairs to the fifth floor. He speed-walked to the end of the hallway, stopping in front of Mokuba's room and pushing open the half-closed door without bothering to knock first.

Mokuba sat up quickly in his bed, startled by his brother's sudden entrance. Only a bedside lamp and the television were on in the otherwise darkened room. He was shirtless, the rest of his body hidden under his bed sheets.

"Seto—"

 _"_ _Please_ tell me that you have pants on," Kaiba said through gritted teeth, looking anywhere but directly at his younger sibling. That turned out to be a mistake, he realized, when the first place that his eyes came to rest ended up being the floor by the bed, where he could see a frilly pink bra and matching panties in a crumpled heap.

"Yeah, I do," Mokuba finally replied, somewhat indignantly. He tossed aside his navy blanket and reached down swiftly to pick up something from the floor, but his hand closed on empty carpet. He glanced down with a confused look on his face, and Kaiba spoke up.

"I think Rebecca is wearing it right now," he remarked coldly, seemingly having read his brother's mind. Mokuba looked up at him, his cheeks flushed slightly.

"This is awkward…"

 _"_ _You_ think it's awkward? How do you think I felt when I came home to find a half-naked girl in the kitchen?"

"Turned on, maybe?" Mokuba cringed at his older brother's furious glare, but he couldn't help but grin despite himself.

"Not funny, Mokuba."

"Come on, it's not like she's a total stranger!" The younger boy stood up and walked over to his dresser near the door, pulling out a white undershirt. He was wearing only a pair of boxers at the moment, but he stepped into some black sweatpants out of courtesy after pulling the shirt over his head.

"Jesus Christ," Kaiba muttered with a shake of his head. He was still at a loss for words after what he had seen in the last several minutes, and part of him prayed that it was all just a terrible dream. While the young CEO had never once fallen asleep at his desk at Kaiba Corporation, he desperately hoped that this was simply the first time. Any moment now, he would wake up…

But alas, a few seconds passed, and he found that he was still standing in his younger brother's bedroom.

"It must have been a good party," he said finally, rubbing his eyes. He would have to accept his fate, after all. "Happy birthday, by the way."

"Thanks, Seto," Mokuba replied. He smiled and clapped his brother on the shoulder. They were now nearly the same height, with Kaiba still slightly taller by about an inch. "Sorry to scare you."

Kaiba released a sigh in response, and his younger brother turned to enter the bathroom through the door on the opposite side of the room. As soon as Mokuba had disappeared, the older man approached the bedside table (making sure to give the lingerie on the floor a wide berth) and quickly pulled open the drawer. To his relief (chagrin?), he found an open box of condoms, and he sighed again.

"Don't worry, I'm on the pill, too," came Rebecca's voice from behind him, and Kaiba almost had a heart attack.

"What is wrong with you?" he nearly shouted as he turned around. Rebecca was standing a few feet away in the doorway that he had just vacated, a sly smile on her face and something black and lacy in her left hand.

"Your girlfriend has good taste," she said silkily. Again, the slightly violated feeling returned, and Kaiba suppressed a shudder.

"What are you talking about?"

She held up her hand to show him the bra that she was holding, one that he recognized immediately. Rebecca's bottle green eyes flicked downward and quickly located the size inscribed on the tag, and then she smirked.

"It's a little small for me, though," she observed haughtily.

Quick as lightning, Kaiba took a step forward and snatched the underwear out of the blonde girl's hands. "Where did you get this?" he demanded.

"I found it in the room next door. It's full of your girlfriend's clothes. She comes over a lot, huh?"

"That's none of your business." The elder Kaiba brother was contemplating an escape route that didn't involve going through the door that Rebecca was now blocking with her voluptuous, mostly bare body, when the bathroom door opened again and Mokuba reemerged.

"You're still here," he remarked, almost as if by surprise.

"Who, me?" Rebecca asked, and she smirked again in amusement when both brothers replied simultaneously: Kaiba answered 'yes', while Mokuba answered 'no'. Kaiba shot his brother a glare.

"Do your parents even know that you're here?" he continued impatiently. Rebecca cocked her head and put her hands on her hips.

"I'm a Ph.D. student," the younger girl declared, "I don't need my parents' permission to go anywhere or do anything."

"Is that what they're calling daycare these days?"

"I'm eighteen, you jerk!"

"Inches tall? Yeah, I noticed."

"Why, you—"

Mokuba could no longer stifle his laughter, and the pair paused their bickering to glare at him where he stood.

"You guys are so much alike, it's kinda weird," the younger Kaiba managed finally. His older brother growled in the back of his throat and jerked his thumb toward the unexpected guest.

"She'd better not still be here when I get up tomorrow," Kaiba spat. Rebecca huffed in indignation and went to pick up her pink lingerie where it lay tangled by Mokuba's bed.

"Don't worry, I'm leaving now!"

"Wait, Becs, hang on a second," Mokuba said quickly, taking Kaiba by the arm and guiding him out of his bedroom. "I'll be right back," he called to the scantily-clad girl inside as he closed the door behind him. Turning around to face his brother, he took in Kaiba's less than impressed expression.

"You're not serious with her, are you?" Kaiba asked, the volume of his voice lowered considerably as the pair stood together in the darkened hallway. His younger brother made a face.

"She's super arrogant and high-maintenance… kind of like you, I guess," Mokuba explained, fully anticipating Kaiba's appalled glare. He took a deep breath. "Her body, though, _damn_ —"

"I'm going to vomit," his elder brother interrupted, covering his face with both hands. The younger boy scoffed and punched him in the arm.

"Chill out, Seto. It's just a one-time thing—we'll probably never hear from her again after tonight." Mokuba raised his eyebrows at Kaiba expectantly. "But, just for tonight… okay?"

"Fine." He wasn't fine at all. Still unable to believe what was happening on some level, Kaiba straightened his sleeves restlessly before giving his brother a disapproving look. "Don't do anything stupid."

Mokuba winked at him with a mischievous grin before turning back and disappearing into his room, where Rebecca was waiting for him.

With an exhausted sigh, Kaiba turned to head to his own room just across the hall, stopping in front of his door to glance down at the black bra, which he had forgotten that he was still holding. For an insane moment, he thought that it felt slightly warm in his hand, as if he had just removed it from his lover's body and that she, too, would be waiting for him just inside his room.

He couldn't help but smirk wryly as he tossed the bra onto his dresser, making sure that his bedroom door was locked securely behind him before retiring to his own empty bed, alone.


End file.
